Week 39 (Sept. 24-30): Surprise

The biggest surprise to me about my family just happened a few days ago. 

Let's get the background. 

My generation had 8 cousins, namely seven girls and one boy. Since my mother was an only child, there weren't any first cousins on her family side...but I've learned of some second and third cousins in my ancestry work.

Of my cousins, one family was raised right in Houston where our grandparents lived. And one family moved to St. Louis, MO (mine). And another one lived in Wausau and then Stevens Point, WI.

So the cousins had few opportunities to meet each other as they were growing up. Back in the 50s it took several days to travel from Houston to St. Louis by car, and another long one to get to Wausau.

But the grandparents did make at least one trip to visit my family in St. Louis, (probably by train)...as my photo album attests to.

My dad, grandfather, grandmother and myself somewhere in St. Louis 1957-59 sometime

And the young St. Louis family did get together at least once in Wisconsin, while the Wisconsin family visited the Houston cousins at least once. And the Houston cousins even took the train without parents to visit the St. Louis cousins once. That's it during our childhoods.

Two Texas cousins in back and St. Louis cousins in front (me on right)

Through all 81 years of my life, I did see some of my Wisconsin cousins as an adult with my first 2 children. And I visited the Houston cousins as a young mother once when our grandmother was dying. I may have also seen them at the funeral but don't remember that at all.

Then several years ago I took the proverbial bull by the horn and emailed my one male cousin, who lives in Columbia SC, about 2-1/2 hours from my home in Black Mountain NC. And I asked if I could meet him for lunch (with my friend who was going with me to see the Escher exhibit at the Columbia Art Museum.) Thus two birds, etc.

So I met John again, after all those years. He'd been pretty young when I met him and his sister, the second family of our Wisconsin relations.

While I've been doing my ancestry, my oldest Wisconsin cousin who now lives all the way in Arizona, has a great family tree, so she helped me a lot.

Her two sisters now live in Austin and Conroe TX and have been my Facebook friends for several years...so I know a bit about their lives that they share there. And we make comments on each other's posts every once in a while.

I was surprised last month to be messaged by a "second cousin" (daughter of a Houston first cousin) who wanted some photos for her mother's upcoming birthday. I haven't had any contact with her mother in years. So I gladly sent her what I had, and wished her mother a happy birthday. After lots of emails and texts, it was great to actually have a phone conversation with this second cousin, who I maybe met when she was a baby in Houston TX.

I mentioned to this second cousin that I didn't seem to have a family that the cousins got together all that much...at least in the past, compared to my daughter-in-law's Italian descended family which gathers all the time, it seems, even over many miles. 

Here's my surprise. The very next day one of my Texas cousins on Facebook messaged that she was coming to visit her brother in Columbia SC and wanted to come visit me while she was in the east. She hoped her sister (also in Texas) could get some time off from her job and come too. And since then she has arranged it also.

So I now have a planned visit by three siblings...my cousins who had grown up in Wisconsin. I haven't seen then since they were much much younger (and me too!)

I've put it on my calendar. You know I'll take phone pics when I can.

Oh, did you want to see some of us as kids?

Back when I lived in Houston, my Texas cousin on L, then me with broom, my little sis, then other Texas cousin. Yes in 1949 Houston had a snow that stuck! Tex. cousin on right is having her birthday Sept. 28.

L to R...Texas cousin, Wisconsin cousin, Tex.cousin, and smallest Wisc. cousins taken in Texas (before two younger Wisconsin cousins were born.)

Sharing with 52 Ancestors 52 Weeks on Facebook at Generations Cafe' (a private group but I think anyone can join)

Card by Inge Look

Rev. John Howard and 4 more generations then a big surprise

Rev. John HOWARD

1596–1684

Birth 1596 • London, London, England

Death 2 FEB 1684 • Henrico, Virginia

This 10th great grandfather, was a son of Lord Thomas Howard, who (the son) didn't seem to have any titles, nor marry anyone who would provide riches or notoriety for him...Rev. Howard left England after the death of his first wife, Jane Ann [Joan] Wright (1600-1622.)  Their daughter, Jane Ann Howard, arrived in Virginia later on, I'd guess.  He remarried in 1623 just before shipping in 1624 to Virginia.  We don't have his daughter's arrival dates, but my guess is that he didn't take a toddler with him, and his second wife apparently stayed in England, only to die 10 years later in 1634. Would she have kept her step-daughter? Or maybe some other Howard family (of which there may be around a dozen) raised her.

His daughter Jane Ann Howard (born around 1620-22) married in 1643 in Henrico County, VA, Abraham Childers 1613-1679.  So she definitely came to America. They were my 9th great grandparents. (NOTE: I rely for facts upon the back of others, and maybe some of them will be disproved someday. I'll just apologize when that happens)

What was Henrico County like in the early 17th Century?

In 1611, Thomas Dale founded the Citie of Henricus on a peninsula in the James River that is now called Farrar's Island.^[9] Henricus was named for Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales and was destroyed during the Indian massacre of 1622, in which tribes attacked the settlers to drive them away.^[10]

In 1634, Henrico Shire was one of the eight original Shires of Virginia established by the British in the Virginia Colony.^[1] Since then, 10 counties and three independent cities have been formed from the original territory of Henrico Shire.Source:

 Goochland County was formed out of Henrico County in 1728, and Albermarle in 1744. So these people may not have moved a bit (or perhaps the did!), and their birth and death have different counties given.

Back to the ancestors... 

Jane Ann Howard Childers

1620–1681

BIRTH BET. 1620-1622 • Nottinghamshire, England

DEATH 1 FEB 1681 • Curles, Henrico, Virginia

What is Curles, Henrico, Virginia?

In November 1635, a year after the formal designation of Henrico County as one of 8 shires (or counties) in the Virginia Colony, a land patent for 750 acres (3.0 km²) was granted to Captain Thomas Harris, who had apparently served under Sir Thomas Dale. The tobacco farm was referred to by early settlers as "Longfield", but soon thereafter became known as Curles Neck. Captain Harris served in the House of Burgesses at Jamestown as a Burgess for Curles Neck.

The source of the name Curles Neck is unknown. Many people thought that the name derived from the meandering sweeping curves of the tidal James River in the area, which can clearly be seen by map. However, the family name of Curle is recorded in various grants over a span of one hundred years in the books at the State Land Registry Office. Source:

And their daughter (my 8th great grandmother) was - 

Sarah CHILDERS PERKINS

1644–1722

BIRTH 1644 • Henrico County, Virginia

DEATH 1722 • Henrico County, Virginia

Of course I'm skipping ahead, and showing just the tip of the iceberg if you will, of complete generations.  So sometime in the future, when I can follow the hints on Ancestry, I'll find out more about Abraham Childress and his son-in-law, Nicholas N. Perkins.

I just wanted to move along through these generations, and link up with some of the other families in Virginia which I think are on the George Rogers Family Tree.

One of the Perkins' sons was my 7th great grandfather:

Constantine PERKINS

1682–1767

BIRTH 1682 • Tuckahoe Creek, Henrico, Virginia

DEATH 3 SEP 1767 • Goochland County, Virginia

and he married (in 1710):

Anne POLLARD PERKINS

1684–1760

BIRTH 1684 • Louisa, Virginia (NOTE: Louisa County was founded in 1742, so the records are from before it was called this name.)

DEATH 1760 • Goochland, Virginia

Their daughter, my 6th great grandmother:

Elizabeth PERKINS WHITLOW

1724–1798

BIRTH 1724 • Charles City, Charles, Virginia

DEATH 1798 • Goochland County, Virginia

married in 1747

Henry Othello WHITLOW

1724–1788

BIRTH ABT 1724 • Henrico, Virginia

DEATH 21 JUL 1788 • Goochland, Goochland, Virginia

Another county is mentioned above, Charles City County, VA. It was formed as one of the original shires of VA in 1634, so isn't a result of divisions of another one.

The majority of European colonists were English people who arrived as indentured servants and who owed labor time, often up to seven years, to wealthier patrons who had paid for their passage in order to gain land and laborers. The English government provided land grants to such patrons under a headright system, to encourage the settlement of more people in the colony. During the 17th century, hard economic times in England encouraged workers to risk going to the North American colonies.

Some indentured servants paid off their passage and eventually owned land of their own. While some became "planters" (owning 20 slaves or more), they tended to have property in the upland section of the county. By the time most indentured workers had earned freedom and some rose to common planter status, the wealthiest planter families in the county already controlled the valuable riverfront property. This gave them ready access to the waterways, the transportation system for trade and travel. Source:

Shirley Plantation, one of the dozen or more James River plantations in Charles City County

I'll stop here, but just mention that in two more generations my family moved to Tennessee.

It's amazing how many people were living in Virginia in the 17th and 18th centuries.  

Ah Ha! A genealogy awakening.  I  may have a new ancestor, which would mean a difference in these people that I just discussed today.  It seems Constantine Perkins wrote a will, where his daughter Elizabeth was married to someone named Ellis...not Whitlow.

Thus, my Whitlow connection may not be along this line at all.  And I wouldn't have all the ancestors I've talked about for the last 3 days.  Ha ha...the joke's on me of course.  Because there were ancestors in existence, but apparently not these people.  

How do I now know the new information will take me in another direction? 

My ancestor Henry Whitlow and his  wife (unknown at this point) had a daughter in 1744, Nancy Ann Whitlow, who married John  Cannon, my ancestors.  The will of Constantine Perkins that speaks of Elizabeth Perkins Ellis (not Whitlow) was written in 1761...after the birth of the Whitlow children.

Now off I go to take out all the connections to the Perkins and up the line to the Howards.  Wasn't it interesting, even if not my ancestors?

Today's Quote.

Every exit is an entry somewhere else.

Tom Stoppard